I’m depressed about the election. It’s hard for me to watch election news lately, because it gets me alternately angry and down. Polls that show McCain in the lead? It absolutely flummoxes me.

How can this man be in the lead? How can it be that Sarah Palin, a woman who has done absolutely nothing to show that she can be president of the United States, is winning people over? What the fuck is wrong with people? I just don’t understand why Christian fundamentalists want her to be in the White House just because she’s a Christian fundamentalist too. What does fundamentalist Christianity have to do with secular government? What does it have to do with being the leader of one of the most powerful countries on the planet?

Why don’t people know how to THINK?

It’s not just Americans. There are plenty of complete idiots around the world. Middle Eastern terrorists are idiots. Conspiracy theorists are idiots. European anti-Semites are idiots. There are idiots on all seven continents. Yes, Antarctica included.

And it’s not just today. Human beings throughout history have been idiots. Look at the Crusades, look at ancient wars.

I tend to think of myself as an intelligent person. But when half the country can support a man who has shown no inclination to change any of the current administration’s policies, policies that have driven us over a cliff, it makes me wonder if the problem is actually me. Am I the idiot? Am I the delusional one? Should I stop insisting that there are four lights?

No, seriously. I don’t understand. Are people really this stupid?

Okay, clearly the answer is yes. Four years ago our country took a look at George W. Bush, one of the worst presidents in American history — and re-elected him.

But what I’m more interested in is why. Why are people so stupid? Why can people make these decisions without actually thinking? Why don’t people know? How? To? THINK????

I know there are so many different types of people in this country. I have no idea what it’s like to be a religious fundamentalist, or to be so busy with a job and kids that I get all my news from talk radio, or to have spent all my life in the suburbs and never lived without a car. Our political views are formed by our life experiences.

And I know we all have different brains, and different chemical makeups — different personality types, different talents, different interests. And these affect our political views as well.

In a country of 300 million people, it should be no surprise that people hold different opinions.

But come on! What the fuck is WRONG with these people?

It really makes me want to cry.

And I have zero faith that my opinions on ANYTHING are correct anymore.

If it’s not at all obvious (ya think?), I’m enthralled by the Sarah Palin trainwreck.

I agree with Andy that there’s a strong chance she won’t be on the ballot in November. They’ll find a way for her to withdraw for personal or health reasons while saving McCain as much face as possible. Reasons can always be found in politics, just as Charles Krauthammer scripted a withdrawal scenario for Harriet Miers.

Palin isn’t helping him with women, but she’s firing up the base, so if he replaces her with someone who’s not a social conservative, they’ll revolt. So he’ll wind up picking Huckabee (or maybe Jindal if he comes off looking good from Gustav, even though he has even less gubernatorial experience than Palin?).

But I actually don’t want her to leave the ticket — as long as she helps McCain lose. She’s proving to be a horrible distraction and I love it. (I’d make a reference to “Hurricane Palin,” but it’s been done.)

Why can’t McCain stop saying “My friends”?

[I]n the last half-century it’s been exclusively resorted to by the worst orators in our presidential races.

What happened to change the phrase’s status in our language after Eisenhower’s 1956 speech? I have my own unprovable pet theory: It’s because the following year saw The Music Man debut on Broadway. Ever since, the phrase has been irrevocably associated with old-timey con men in straw boaters: “My friends, you got trouble right here in River City!“